


The Things That Matter

by grainjew



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Leadership, especially these two. i love them, goa kingdom is also mentioned but somehow not actually as an example of shitheads, leaders being friends and having emotions and respecting each other is good content thanks, they taught each other so much!!!! ahhh, wapol is mentioned as an example of shitheads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 17:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14337177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: Luffy and Vivi are both leaders with high standards for good leadership and a deep respect for each other, so a conversation on that topic is probably inevitable"You're gonna protect the people that are yours." He moved, finally, swept an arm out at the ship and the ocean, all-encompassing. "They're yours, so you're not gonna give up till they're safe. That's what matters."





	The Things That Matter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



> hi i love luffy and vivi. also it doesnt come up in this fic but nami and vivi are so gay and it makes me cry, and i feel like it would be doing them an injustice to not mention that when this is a vivi fic, so, this is the requisite mention of them

"You're a good princess," said Luffy.

He had come up next to her, leaning on the railing of the Going Merry, and then tilted his head more like a bird than the monkey that was his name, curious and searching. She bore the gaze with confusion and faint concern, because Luffy stilled was Luffy dangerous or an impossibility, she hadn't quite decided. So she let him look at her. Waited, with the patience she had cultivated in endless duty, until he spoke.

"Oh!" she said in answer, hand moving towards her mouth before she could stop it, because that wasn't what she had expected him to say at all. "Uh, thanks! Although you haven't seen me in Alabasta, so..."

"You're a good princess," said Luffy again, still staring, still motionless except for a faint breeze that tugged at his hat. "You know what's important."

"What's important?" Vivi could count herself thoroughly at sea -- and not just in the sense that she was on a pirate ship, either, for all that that was still a new experience of its own. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tilted her head opposite to Luffy to look him in the eyes directly, because it wasn't fair if he got to and she didn't. "What do you mean?"

"You're gonna protect the people that are yours." He moved, finally, swept an arm out at the ship and the ocean, all-encompassing. "They're yours, so you're not gonna give up till they're safe. That's what matters."

Vivi forgot, sometimes, that Luffy, beneath the impulsivity and idiocy and selfishness, was a leader of his own right, someone so inspiring and with a pull so strong as to gather a crew and make Pirate King seem tangible. "...you're a good captain, then."

He grinned at her in response, a small crescent smile as his cheeks pinked.

“What brought this on?” she asked, straightening her head up as he straightened his. “It was kind of out of nowhere…”

“Dunno,” said Luffy. Then, “You were right, though, in Drum, about how I was being dumb about the situation. Usually punching people works but sometimes it’s not so good for solving problems, I guess.”

“I was taught to solve my problems with the least amount of punching possible, actually,” said Vivi. She laughed a little. “I suppose that’s not true for everyone though!”

“Sounds boring,” said Luffy, scrunching his face up and evaporating all remaining impressions of inspiring leader.

Dammit. He was back to looking like his usual dumb cheerful self. Well, even if the moment had passed... Vivi sighed.

“I was out of line too, though,” she said, looking away from him and at the sea, oddly calm for a day in the open ocean of the Grand Line. A slight wind tossed up small waves and sped their sails as the Going Merry hurried to save Alabasta, deep jewel blue tipped with white all the way to the horizon. It was beautiful, would always be, but she missed with sudden fierce intensity the rolling windswept gold of Alabasta, the white marble of her palaces.

“Vivi?”

Ah. Right. Apologies were difficult, no matter how much practice she had. “Chopper said you climbed all the way up that cliff carrying Nami and Sanji. He said your hands were a mess, and that you were nearly dead from frostbite and exhaustion.”

She still didn’t look at him, because the way he looked at people was a kind of discerning sharpness she didn’t want to be on the receiving end of twice in as many minutes, and she could almost feel his gaze boring into the side of her head.

“Why’d he tell you all that?” asked Luffy, sounding innocently curious in spite of the way she knew he was staring.

“I asked,” said Vivi. “I wanted to know how… Well.” One of her hands twitched to mess with her hair, and she placed it to grip the railing instead. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m a guest on your ship, or— well at any rate you’re the captain. And you’re— just because you didn’t think for one second doesn’t mean I should have said you were unworthy of the captaincy, that’s not— You nearly died climbing that mountain for the people that are yours.”

“Oh, that’s all?” said Luffy. As she turned towards him in sudden incredulity she saw him take off his hat and turn it over in his hands, staring at it. “It’s true that I was wrong, so it’s not like it matters anymore. Plus that Wapol guy made all the problems and I got to punch him, which was pretty great. And we got Chopper!”

“Well I’m still sorry,” said Vivi, suddenly unmoored and vaguely indignant. Leave it to Luffy to unbalance her.

“Okay, if you want to be,” said Luffy blandly. He put his hat back on his head. “You’re the first princess I ever met, you know.”

“I think I’m probably the first princess most people have met,” said Vivi back, still a bit annoyed. “There aren’t really that many of us, comparatively.”

Luffy ignored her. “I mean Goa Kingdom back home had a princess I think, but I never met her, so it doesn’t count. But see, since I’d never met a princess I wasn’t sure if at first you were a good princess or just a princess.” Vivi nodded, though not really in understanding. “Except then we met Wapol, who was a bad king, and since he was bad, then obviously you’re good.”

“Uh...huh,” said Vivi, trying to follow his logic. Well, there was one thing he was without doubt correct about. “Wapol was an awful ruler. A king who treats his people as personal amusement...”

“People that are yours are for protecting,” said Luffy, firmly.

Vivi nodded a second time, and then held his gaze this time as a fiercer gust of wind whipped her hair from behind her ears and all around in her face. “You’re a good captain,” she said again, with intent.

“And you’re a good princess,” he repeated. “You know what’s important.”

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr or twitter @grainjew ! i love to talk. i especially love to talk about my special interests and my fic. come make my day and talk to me.


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